常見的穴居哺乳動物，被認爲是齧齒動物，以繁殖能力強而著稱，14世紀後期， rabet，“兔子的幼崽”，疑似來自瓦隆語 robète 或類似的北法語方言單詞，是弗拉芒語或中古荷蘭語 robbe “兔子”的小型化形式，其起源不詳。[利伯曼]。成年兔子在18世紀之前被稱爲 coney（參見）。
Zoologically speaking, there are no native rabbits in the United States; they are all hares. But the early colonists, for some unknown reason, dropped the word hare out of their vocabulary, and it is rarely heard in American speech to this day. When it appears it is almost always applied to the so-called Belgian hare, which, curiously enough, is not a hare at all, but a true rabbit. [Mencken, "The American Language"]
從動物學的角度來看，美國沒有本土的兔子； 它們都是野兔。但早期的殖民者出於某種未知的原因，將 hare 這個詞從他們的詞彙中刪除了，直到今天在美國的語言中很少聽到。當它出現時，幾乎總是用於所謂的比利時野兔，有趣的是，它實際上並不是野兔，而是真正的兔子。[門肯，“美國語言”]
Rabbit punch “頸部砍擊”（1915）因類似於看守員處理受傷的兔子的方法而得名。從帽子裏拿出兔子作爲魔術師的把戲，最早見於1843年。美國南部黑人文化中， Rabbit's foot “幸運符”可追溯至1879年。早期的參考文獻是將其用作塗抹化妝粉的工具。
[N]ear one of them was the dressing-room of the principal danseuse of the establishment, who was at the time of the rising of the curtain consulting a mirror in regard to the effect produced by the application of a rouge-laden rabbit's foot to her cheeks, and whose toilet we must remark, passim, was not entirely completed. [New York Musical Review and Gazette, Nov. 29, 1856]
[N]ear one of them was the dressing-room of the principal danseuse of the establishment, who was at the time of the rising of the curtain consulting a mirror in regard to the effect produced by the application of a rouge-laden rabbit's foot to her cheeks, and whose toilet we must remark, passim, was not entirely completed. [New York Musical Review and Gazette, Nov. 29, 1856]
Rabbit-hole 可追溯至1705年。Rabbit ears “雙極電視天線”來源於1950年。Grose 的1785年《俚語詞典》中有“RABBIT CATCHER. A midwife.”（兔子捕手。助產士。）
